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About This Project

The chairs road Shunde

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In Shunde, you can furnish your household for less… but at what price?

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Over the last twenty years, Shunde has become the largest furniture producer in the World. Factories and resellers are spread over more than 10 km of highway. The factory we visit copies many of the great classics of 20th century furniture design. Produced from copies bought from neighboring competitors, original designs are changed and adapted by each successive producer. The factory we visit exports several containers of furniture each month. Work is done by employees who work 6 days a week amidst epoxy fumes and fiberglass dust, without any protection. The contrast between the conceptual rigor of the designs and the chaotic way these designs are turned into finished products is striking. The creators of these masterpieces of industrial design once sought to democratize quality through ingenious production systems based on modern industrialization. Although this vision is still alive and shared by the proprietors of these designs, the owner of this factory, driven by economic priorities, shows no care for his employees or the environment while disregarding copyrights and the conceptual basis from which the products he manufactures stem.